What should the Dragons team office do based on the results of the 2022 season?
Here is my personal opinion as a Dragons fan.
The 2022 pennant race finished with a game against Carp on October 2.
The Dragons finished at the very bottom while having players competing for the titles in both the pitcher and batters divisions. In the case of the bottom team, even if there is a player competing for the title, it is often the case that the title is competing only in one division. However, despite The Dragons has players who can compete for titles in multiple divisions at both pitchers and batters, the Dragons finished at the very bottom.
If this year’s results could be expressed in one word, the result against DeNA would be the factor that pulled them down to the bottom of the list.
Below are the match results by team.
Swallows
Baystars
Tigers
Giants
Carp
The interleague games
14 wins 10 losses
6 wins 18 losses
12 wins 13 losses
12 wins 13 losses
15 wins 10 losses
7 wins 11 losses
+4 wins
-12 losses
-1 loss
-1 loss
+5 wins
-4 losses
This year’s Dragons has 60 wins and 53 losses that excludes the match result against DeNA.
If the Dragons can strengthen their strategy and strength to contend with DeNA at an even or better, the Dragons will be able to contend at A-Class absolutely. The reinforce taken against DeNA will be effective against other teams as well, and the Dragons has the potential to become a team that can even contend for a championship.
DeNA has a strong batting lineup.
When the Dragons plays DeNA, their stadiums are the spacious Vantelin Dome and the narrower Yokohama Stadium. However, the Dragons has a result more losses than wins in both stadiums.
One of the reasons for this will be the lack of a scoring ability, which everyone understands. In other words, it is the weakness in cleanup hitter that has been pointed out for a long time. The lead-off man and 2nd batters are competing for the titles, but their lack of scoring ability has caused big damage of their result. Reinforcement is urgently required. In particular, there is an urgent require to acquire a cleanup man who can hit home runs in the Vantelin Dome, like Tyrone Woods and Tony Blanco.
What other factors of the very bottom ? There are many opinions and thought on this question, but even the spacious Vantelin Dome is getting hit often, including home runs. In other words, DeNA batting line has not struggled against the Dragons’ pitchers. However, as you may know, we can say that the Dragons’ pitchers are good both from their results and from other games. Then it must be a strategy issue, i.e., it may be battery issue.
Does the Dragons study as a team how to select pitches to opposing batters ?
Does the catcher study about opposing batters and then consider his frame pitches for making a game ?
It may be same as the frame pitches against Yakult’s Murakami. The battery needs to understand the frame pitches issue that makes Murakami say “I like Vantelin Dome.”
The strategy review would be possible starting in the fall training camp. In the fall training camp, it is necessary to do not only the practical training but also the frame pitches review for all the games of this year with the coaches and players involved in the battery. In this review, they will ask themselves and need to clarify about “What was wrong? What countermeasures are needed for solving this issue ?”.
To make the team stronger, the Dragons should acquire a cleanup man who can hit home runs in the Vantelin Dome. Of course it is important to develop young players such as Ishikawa and Ukai, but most important is to acquire hit-ready cleanup man immediately. If Dayan Viciedo does not need to think the hitting home runs and can be 3rd or 5th batter in the batting order, I think the batting power of the Dragons will change dramatically. There may be budget limitations for reinforcement of Dragons. But since the team uses “Chunichi” in its name, the parent company should pay money to the team as the advertisement expenses and the sales promotion expense.
Long time many people is mentioning, but I think it is also important to rejuvenate the team. What is needed to keep the team strength at a high level is young power. The good news is that several youngsters have grown under Tatsunami’s Dragons. The team needs to put up with painful reforms for rejuvenating. This pain is the replacement of players including the termination of their contracts. Given the Dragons has long poor seasons, it will be a painful but necessary decision for building stronger teams.
The year after Hoshino became the manager of the Tigers, he set out to reform that the replacement of a lot of players including the termination of their contracts. And as a result, the Tigers became a team capable of winning a championship.
Hoshino said that “I had no ties to the former Tigers players or local support groups (we called “tanimachi”), so I was able to replace of a lot of players.”
Tatsunami manager is the former player of the Dragons. There is a possibility that there will be censure from the former Dragons players or local support groups to the reforms that Tatsunami will make to strengthen the team. The Dragons team office needs to protect Tatsunami from such noise.
I hope the Dragons to set and achieve the milestone of being A-Class next year and winning the championship the year after.
Thanks.